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Resurrection Christian hockey fires away

5-goal outburst puts Indians away

By Mike Brohard Sports Editor

Posted:
01/12/2013 09:29:22 PM MST

Shift after shift, the shots kept flying.

There were slappers and wristers and drives that were redirected, but after 34 minutes of play Saturday, all Resurrection Christian School's hockey team had to show for its nearly 50-shot efforts were two first-period goals against Cheyenne Mountain goalie Grant Payne.

The way the Cougars (8-2) saw things, his name would have been spelled Pain, as in a major one. To top it off, the Indians (2-6-1) had tallied a power play goal in the second, one of just nine shots they had at that point with the majority of the game spent in the Cougars' offensive end.

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Frustrating, yes. But Rez assistant coach Bob Herrfeldt (head coach Jake Pence had to sit after the Cougars had too many penalties in a 5-3 loss to Monarch on Wednesday) told his team things would eventually add up.

"We should have put up a lot with how many shots we had," John Tower said. "That goalie was strong. Like coach said, it's math -- he's got to let some in at some point, and he's going to let in a lot when that happens."

Resurrection Christian School's Logan Hemberger, right, and Cheyenne Mountain's Brett Adams battle along the boards in the first period of their game Saturday at the NoCo Ice Center in Windsor.
(Steve Stoner)

The Cougars finally exploded against Payne, putting three behind him in a span of 5:51 to start the third, leading to a 7-1 victory at NoCo Arena.

"There's no doubt you do get frustrated, but that's only if the plan doesn't work," Herrfeldt said. "Eventually if you put that many shots on him, the numbers start working back in your favor. That's exactly what I told the guys between the second and the third period."

Herrfeldt made one adjustment, and that was to send his top two lines to the ice continuously with the only directive to use their size and speed to finally get Payne to crack. Cory Richardson did it first at 1:41 into the stanza, beating Payne high from just inside the blue line. It took just 63 more seconds before John Tower beat Payne again, then he assisted on Nicholas Maki's tally at the 5:51 mark, sending Payne to the bench.

Tower noted that once the seal was broken, everybody in a Rez sweater wanted to get in on the action.

"Everybody just wanted to score by then," he said. "We kept it down in their zone and they went in, and then they changed their goalie."

Jeremy Hamerquist didn't fare much better, giving up goals to Tyler Weber and Tanner Ulland -- their second each after scoring in the first -- to close the contest.

Cheyenne Mountain coach Erik Austin said his team pretty much packed it in at that point. But up until then, he said Payne was giving his Indians its lone chance to steal a win.

"That's a great hockey team," Austin said. "They're in a different league than we are, and the only way we come out of here with anything but a loss is if our goalie stands on his head and our guys work hard for three periods. We didn't."

Rez goalie Dylan Griffith didn't have much company, stopping 11 of the 12 shots he faced, the lone blemish coming on a power play marker from Nick Lacayo midway through the second that came just as a 5-on-3 advantage for the Indians came to a close.

For the most part, the Cougars were able to stay out of the penalty box, obviously a major factor in the loss to Monarch. And with guys flying around the ice, the shots -- and eventually the goals -- came in droves.

"We just had to stick with our game plan," Tower said after the Cougars finished with 69 shots. "It was pretty frustrating. We stuck with it -- shots, shots, shots -- and we finally started to put them away."

Garrett Wood had four assists for the Cougars, with Jake Lish setting up two other Rez goals.

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